What might have grown into a large fire on Maple Street in Bridgeport, Conn. was snuffed out Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 before flames could spread from a window frame. A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia Bell's third-floor bedroom window about 8:30 p.m., setting off smoke alarms, four residents' panic and at least one neighbors' concern as the fire grew in the night's cold, heavy wind. less

What might have grown into a large fire on Maple Street in Bridgeport, Conn. was snuffed out Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 before flames could spread from a window frame. A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia ... more

Photo: Stephen Krauchick

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What might have grown into a large fire on Maple Street in Bridgeport, Conn. was snuffed out Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 before flames could spread from a window frame. A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia Bell's third-floor bedroom window about 8:30 p.m., setting off smoke alarms, four residents' panic and at least one neighbors' concern as the fire grew in the night's cold, heavy wind. less

What might have grown into a large fire on Maple Street in Bridgeport, Conn. was snuffed out Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 before flames could spread from a window frame. A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia ... more

Photo: Stephen Krauchick

Image 3 of 4

What might have grown into a large fire on Maple Street in Bridgeport, Conn. was snuffed out Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 before flames could spread from a window frame. A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia Bell's third-floor bedroom window about 8:30 p.m., setting off smoke alarms, four residents' panic and at least one neighbors' concern as the fire grew in the night's cold, heavy wind. less

What might have grown into a large fire on Maple Street in Bridgeport, Conn. was snuffed out Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 before flames could spread from a window frame. A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia ... more

Photo: Stephen Krauchick

Image 4 of 4

Bridgeport home spared in window fire

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BRIDGEPORT -- What might have grown into a large Maple Street fire was snuffed out Saturday night before flames could spread from a window frame.

A candle likely ignited 29-year-old Olivia Bell's third-floor bedroom window about 8:30 p.m., setting off smoke alarms, four residents' panic and at least one neighbors' concern as the fire grew in the night's cold, heavy wind.

"It looked like the whole attic was on fire," said Felix Santiago, 32, who watched from his home down the block.

Inside, Bell was taking her 4-year-old daughter out of the bathtub when the smoke alarm went off. She called for her two older children, Sincere and Taijon, who thought the noise was coming from the first floor. Bell ran upstairs and tried putting out the fire herself, but realized it was too large.

"I said, `Let's go! Let's go!' " she said about 9 p.m., shivering in a T-shirt on the sidewalk, as firefighters scraped burnt fragments of her window three stories down to the ground.

Sincere and Taijon, wearing pajama pants and coats beside her, expressed thanks that the fire had spared their second-floor Xbox.

The family, which started renting the upper two floors about six months ago, could spend Saturday night in their home.

Firefighters unrolled thick black tar paper to hang over the hole that had replaced the third-floor window.